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The onslaught of negative press surrounding beef nutrition and the environment continues. However, in the face of all the anti-beef rhetoric, there’s a glimmer of hope. The overwhelming evidence that beef is both sustainable and healthful is getting harder to sweep under the rug.

This news is evident in recent positive animal agricultural headlines. Here is the roundup of the latest pro-beef articles worth sharing.

To sum up this article, the World Health Organization recently published an article listing five tips to help people get healthier, including using plant-based oils instead of butter or lard. Butter has been demonized for decades over its high content of saturated fat, but an array of scientific evidence is now beginning to counter these claims. Cardiologist Aseem Malhotra has called on the WHO to review and update its guidance.

This article points to the need for nutrient-rich instead of calorie-dense foods to nourish a growing planet population. It concludes we need to focus more on producing vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds; however, I have a better idea. Enter beef, stage right.

Here is an excerpt, “The post-World War II Green Revolution efforts to boost the productivity of staples such as wheat and rice have been so successful that we are now awash in carbohydrates. The productivity enhancements have also made them more affordable relative to other foods that provide more of the other needed nutrients.

“Our success with carbohydrates, however, has had a serious downside: a worldwide plague of obesity, diabetes and other diet-related diseases. WHO reports that in 2014, there were 462 million underweight adults worldwide but more than 600 million who were obese — nearly two-thirds of them in developing countries. And childhood obesity is rising much faster in poorer countries than in richer ones.

“Meanwhile, micronutrient shortages such as Vitamin A deficiency are already causing blindness in somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 children a year and killing half of them within 12 months of them losing their sight. Dietary shortages of iron, zinc, iodine and folate all have devastating health effects. These statistics point to the need for more emphasis on nutrients other than carbohydrates in our diets.”

According to the article, “A new UK-wide campaign is aiming to encourage and inspire the public to eat more lean red meat as a part of a balanced, healthy diet. The collective initiative, by Britain's three red meat organizations, aims to counter misinformation on the role of red meat in a balanced diet. They aim to help support better understanding of the facts about the nutritional value of red meat.”

Keir Watson writes, “A study of 42 European countries found lower cardiovascular disease and mortality among countries that consumed more fats and animal protein. Higher cardiovascular mortality was linked to carbohydrate consumption. Another nail in the coffin for the diet-heart hypothesis?”

The opinions of Amanda Radke are not necessarily those of beefmagazine.com or Farm Progress.